Denzel’s “Flight” may be a tough sell to airlines, to screen in-flight

- Nov 05, 2012 9:27 am

Skift Take

Airlines pilots associations would’ve been half-pleased at the skills of a vet pilot, though disapproving of Denzel’s drug addled behavior. Meanwhile, airlines, troubled with outsourcing maintenance controversies, don’t come out looking good in the movie anyway.

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There’s one place you likely will never be able to see “Flight“: on an airplane.

The fees that airlines pay for movies are but a small slice of a film’s overall income, but in some cases can add up to several million dollars, which can benefit a risky drama like “Flight.” But Paramount Pictures, the film’s financier and distributor, concedes “Flight” will be a tough sell to any airline, even though the carrier and the plane in the film are fictional creations.

Delta Air Lines, which helped train Washington in a cockpit simulator, was concerned that the film was set in Atlanta, Delta’s main hub; that the film’s plane looked a little bit like an McDonnell Douglas MD-80, which Delta flies; and that the airline at the center of the story is a Southern regional carrier.